The first few years of my life at the "training center" were rather uneventful. They weren't too different from my life at home, actually, except that I was better fed. Much better fed.

I had chores that I had to do every day, prayers, lessons in the worship hall. I was younger than the others, so they took me under their wings and helped me to get by when I struggled. Every month or so I was taken to the medical unit so that they could test me.

It was nice being there. The center had electricity some of the time so that we would have lights, but the medical building was fully powered. I got to get glimpses of their machines that make all the numbers and it was always nice and cool. The girl who was closest in age to me would go at the same time and we would get to talk freely while we waited. She lived in one of the other dorms so it was the only time other than prayers we would see on another.

The tests were fairly boring. They would look me over head to toe and take my blood. Sometimes they would make me run on a moving track until I was out of breath and check my heart and lungs. They never told us what the tests meant when we asked. To make sure we were healthy, they said.

When I was about ten my lessons started to change. I was the same age as most of the girls coming in and now I was allowed to go to school. There I learned to read and write, some simple numbers. And history. The history was the worst. We all knew the stories about how the world came to be as it was.

We destroyed the earth with our greed. Mostly. Nature was ignored and violated until the gods gave up on us and let everything die. If the leaders of the Fylakas hadn't kept their great seed vaults, we too would have died. Many, many people did die off before they were able to create stable pockets where people could live. Most are like the village where I spent my first seven years or the compound where the training center was: dusty, desolate, and dry. I never saw any green things growing until they decided I had a mind for herbs. Then I was allowed to visit the hydroponics house. But even that was cold, barren and sterile. Sad little plants growing in their earth-less pots.

Gone were the forests, and fields. Many of the rivers went dry as the oceans shrank. Along the coastlines they built cities where things are better. But to live there you had to either be wealthy or have a useful skill. Sometimes they would scour the small villages for Takers because they make tireless workers, but that was no better life that living under the scorching sun.

The one new thing I learned was how valuable us Givers were to reviving our world. They never quite told us why we were so important or how it was that we helped, but the most important lesson they tried to drill into our little heads was that we were servants of the earth. That was why we must commit ourselves to the Fylakas, to never question, never argue, and never think our own thoughts.

I was always very bad at that last one.

Not everyone agrees with how the Fylakas have chosen to rule the world. Of course not. They rule it very unfairly. Only a small portion of the population is prospering while the rest barely get by. They promise that things will get better.

The rebellion doesn't agree. We were always kept isolated from their propaganda, so until they poisoned the center I didn't know what it really was that they believed. We were told that they were greedy and wanted more than what was available. What they said was that the Elites were really lying to us and things weren't as bad as they kept them. The truth is more complicated than that.

When they got us all better we were moved to a new facility. There were less of us, but they kept us even more separated. I was housed in a dorm with five other girls and we never saw any of the others. Everything went back to normal, except now we have to see the doctors weekly for....treatments.

The unintended consequence of the poisoning was it affect how much blood we produced. I don't know if this is because of how we heal, but it had long lasting effects. We were told eventually we'd go back to normal. Until then they would have to take our blood. I'm fairly certain that it was really the rebels who poisoned us originally, but I am not convinced that the Fylakas didn't continue to give it to us at a lower dose. I know a lot about herbs now and the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

Over the next year there were more incidents. These were more direct. The dorm where I was living was hit and one of the girls living with me was killed right in front of me. I hid while she was slaughtered. I don't know how I stayed quiet the whole time I watched the light dim from her eyes.

I survived. Things didn't really get better after that.